Many people think only the young can stay at youth hostels. That`s not surprising, considering the name.
But don`t let the name keep you away. Youth hostels are open to travelers of all ages, from children to 80-year-olds . . . or older. And in the United States and around the world, hostels are among the lowest-cost, decent accommodations around-an average of $10 a night.
Hostels once had a youthful, counter-culture image-but times have changed.
”In 1985 only about 4 percent of our members were over 55. Now that`s up to 9 percent-and climbing,” said Toby Pyle of the American Youth Hostels organization.
”In these days of $100 hotel and motel rooms, hostels are a real alternative,” Pyle said.
Hostels are changing, too, in response to members` wishes.
About three-quarters of hostels in the U.S. and Canada now provide private rooms for families where parents and children may stay together, Pyle said. (Some hostels also provide rooms for couples).
FAXes and plastic
And in a change from the spartan days of old, some hostels take FAX reservations and credit-card payment; have saunas and games rooms; are wheelchair accessible; and offer tours of historic neighborhoods and evening seminars.
However, other hostels-particularly the older, smaller rural hostels in the U.S. and elsewhere-remain very spartan.
Such hostels may have just two big dormitory rooms sleeping a dozen people or more (one room for females and and one for males) and occasionally no electricity.
The hostel movement began in the 1920s in Germany when teachers began seeking cheap, rural accommodations where schoolchildren could vacation away from the crowded, industrialized cities.
In the United States, the hostel movement was launched in 1934: there now are more than 280 hostels scattered through 40 U.S. states and all the Canadian provinces (members of a national hostel organization can use hostels worldwide).
North American hostels range from the carpeted and air-conditioned New York City hostel (which sprawls over a city block on the Upper West Side and accommodates 480 people); to the Montara hostel, which sleeps 45 people in a renovated 19th-Century lighthouse station on the California coast, 25 miles south of San Francisco; and the pioneer-style Hilda Creek Hostel in Alberta, which sleeps 21 people in log cabins amid the alpine forest and peaks of the Canadian Rockies.
Hostels in North America and around the world have separate dormitory rooms for men and women. The dorms usually have bunk beds and may accommodate anywhere from four to six people to 20 people.
Some reservations
Yet hostels aren`t for everyone.
– Hostel accommodation is bare-bones-rooms have bunk beds and that`s about it. You must clean up after yourself and occasionally you may be asked- or inspired-to help with sweeping floors or the like.
-Many hostels close for some period of the day (hostel managers may have other daytime jobs), but big urban hostels (such as New York`s) remain open through the day.
– You must bring your own towels and bed linens (or rent them from the hostel).
– Given the dormitory accommodations, hostels offer little privacy and little private space (although lockers are provided for storage).
But by giving up some privacy and traditional comforts, you get low-cost accommodations and the chance to meet travelers from around the world.
To hundreds of thousands of travelers, the tradeoffs are obviously worthwhile: 125,000 people belong to the American Youth Hostels organization and about four million people belong to hostel associations worldwide.
